Special Prosecutor Scott Croswell called head Hamilton County Public Defender Ray Faller to the witness stand Tuesday morning.

Faller was called to testify about juvenile cases being resolved in a timely manner.

He testified that his attorneys who had cases still under consideration by Hunter and Juvenile Court Judge John Williams were worried about not having time to appeal decisions, if needed.

Faller told the court that his attorneys could not go forward with adoptions and foster home placements.

He said he sent a letter to Hunter and Williams asking them to resolve the cases or he would file complaints with the Ohio Court of Appeals saying the cases hadn’t been resolved.

Faller said Ohio law states that cases should be decided within 120 days, but that it’s usually done sooner.

He said there were 13 cases that needed to be decided upon. Williams had one case and Hunter had the others.

Faller read pages of emails into evidence between him and Hunter about the issue.

In one email, Hunter said the issue predated her assuming her role as judge. She also said she was short-staffed and that she and Williams had the largest case load of any juvenile court in the state.

Faller gave Hunter and Williams a deadline by which he asked for the cases to be resolved. He also asked for a meeting of the three of them and several others to work out the issue.

Hunter maintained that she could not review the cases because Faller never communicated which ones were in question. Faller said he never told Hunter because she never asked.

The deadline passed without resolution and Faller filed his complaints against Hunter. No complaints were ever filed against Williams.

Upon cross-examination, Hunter’s attorney, Clyde Bennett, asked Faller whether he knew the cases he asked Hunter to resolve had been in the juvenile court since 1998, 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2009, respectively.

Faller told the court he was not familiar, personally, with the cases and intervened on behalf of his staff, which needed the cases to be resolved.

After a break for lunch, Judge Norbert Nadel denied another motion Hunter filed earlier in the day asking him to recuse himself from her case.

In the motion, filed by Hunter, she gives multiple examples as to why Nadel should remove himself from the case.

The motion says that several other judges could be called as witnesses in the case and cited an Ohio Supreme Court decision stating “that a sitting judge should not preside in a case involving another judge of the same court.”

The motion also stated that jurors seated for the trial said “they ‘were not sure’ they could disregard the extensive pretrial media coverage in deciding the case.”

Hunter’s motion alleges that Nadel “is biased” and should step aside. If he were to do so, the entire trial would have to begin again under the consideration of another judge and jury.

Hunter made an oral motion last Wednesday, before opening statements began, asking Nadel to recuse himself. The judge also denied that motion.

The state is expected to call another witness Wednesday morning when the trial resumes.